Republic - Union Square, NYC

http://www.thinknoodles.com/

I'm familiar with this place as a destination for a really fantastic Banh Mi.  

Naturally, I made a bee-line here my first day on the ground.  The journey contained a subway ride and a brisk walk in the snow, which turned into a rapid walk in the frigid rain on the way out!  

But let's focus a bit, and that focus is FOOD!

To my great disappointment the Banh Mi is no longer offered.  WTF?!?!?!?!?!?  Who made that call?  Wowzer!  

I was not happy, but I sat down anyway and perused the menu.  The special of the day happened to be a steamed bun with chicken.  Sounded worth a try, and I added a watercress salad too, trying to stay a little healthy on this trip....

Let's start with the seating.  This place has the mixed group picnic table seating as well!  Must be the latest hot thing?!?!  Well, anyway, I like it.  Much less pretentious that the standard seating strategy.  Well, maybe pretentious is not the right word, but I like it.  I also like the uni-sex toilets!  There is NO reason for separate facilities!  Just like changing rooms at clothing stores.  You are only un-clothed in the stall.  It's not like, let's say, if a dude is buying a shirt he takes all of his clothes off and walks around infront of the mirror shirt-cocking everyone!  You are only naked in your own stall, we can share people.  Back to the toilets, yes, anyway....  I also really love it when they take the toilet thing even further, especially for a large toilet facility.  Separate toilets with a communal hand-washing station in between. Love it.  Let's evolve people, humans, us, you, me...Let's share a meal, share our experiences, share our time, it's so very limited.

Love it

OK, food

The watercress salad was delicious.  Not super flavorful but doesn't need to be, it's a fricken watercress salad, so in that vein, they had a success.  Fresh, light, yummy.

And a great accompaniment for this....

Ohhhhh mama!!!!!!

If you don't get how totally off the charts this is, let good ol' DVA splain you a bit,

Perfect bun, light fluffy, sticks to your finger JUST a bit, but not sloppily.  Steamy and great.

Perfect chicken.  Fried lightly, battered lightly, sauced lightly.  !!!!!!!!! 

Now, the homerun, bullseye if you will.... take a peek deeper inside the bun....  

THERE'S PICKLED CARROTS AND DAICON AND CILANTRO! 

All of the awesome flavors of a straight up, no bullshit, classic, Banh Mi!  

YES!

Really delicious.  Flavor explosion.  Really well done. Not over done.  Just done right.  Kind of like the singer of the National Anthem at the Superbowl, or wherever.  Just sing the fricken song.  No need to show how you can run up and down the scales.  Just sing the song, the classic, and the crowd will love you.

Republic sings the song.  They just fricken sing it.

When in Manhattan, anywhere near Union Square, you really have to try this place.  

Eat more noodles.

DVA